[WILT] Ginger kitties

Mr. Lee’s catcam is one of my opening tabs (I use it to remind myself about the wonder in seeing things from new perspectives) and browsing the site today, I read this:

Aha ! Thats the reason ! Beautiful cat lady…(*)

“An interesting note from Christophe Thill (France) opens speculations: The red-haired cat is not a lady. Red-haired cats are always males, just as “turtleshell” cats are always females. Both colors are linked to the sexual chromosomes (the X or Y). So you can have exceptions, but they’re very, very rare.

Barbara Zmiewski comments: It is correct that most orange cats are males, but 15% of orange cats are females. They just need an orange gene from both parents. A tortoiseshell female carries the orange gene as well. Both of my female cats are orange.”

Huh. Who knew! And I learned this all before I’d even had my first cup of coffee.